Expanding access to post-secondary education for youth with precarious legal status: a Ryerson University case-study

Access to post-secondary education (PSE) for people with precarious legal status (PLS) is an understudied topic, particularly in the Canadian context, resulting in a substantial gap in the theoretical and practical understanding of the subject and a growing pool of wasted talent and deferred dreams. This paper explores the possibility of expanding access to PSE for students with PLS at Ryerson University, given the university’s unique commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion and its intention to be a City Builder. I propose an initiative that would admit academically qualified students into Ryerson, and put in place a tuition equity policy that would honour students’ residency in the province, thus waiving international fees. This paper is structured as a sort of “road-map” that could be utilized by other universities in Ontario interested in undertaking similar initiatives.